James Moody

The news about James Moody is not good. He has been aware of it for some time, but kept it private until this week. No one who knows him will be surprised that he is at peace with the decision he has made. Here is the first paragraph of George Varga’s story in The San Diego Union Tribune.

Jazz saxophone legend James Moody, a San Diego resident for the past 21 years, has disclosed that he has had pancreatic cancer since at least February — and that he had decided not to receive any chemo therapy or radiation treatment.

To read all of the article, go here.
The last time we were together, in 2007too long agoI interviewed Moody on stage at a festival. He reminded me that we had known each other for 50 years and had the kindness to inflate my ego by telling the audience, “And we’ve been buddies, too.” Then he went on to play an astonishing set with the Bill Mays Trio. Go here for a Rifftides account of his concert on that occasion.
On Moody’s 83rd birthday, WBGO-FM, the jazz station in Newark, New Jersey, put together this profile using his own words. It summarizes his attitude toward music, people and life.

Now, the musical part of that philosophy in action: Moody has the first solo in this 1985 performance of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Ow,” with Gillespie, Ray Brown, Gene Harris and Grady Tate.

Related

Comments

I’ve known Moody since about 1950, had the pleasure of producing several recordings with him, including one with strings conducted by Tori Zito that contained a version of “Body and Soul” which, after the final note was played, the entire string section of tough perfectionists applauded by tapping their bows on their instruments.
A kinder, more thoughtful and irrepressibly humorous friend never existed. To employ such a banality as “he will be missed” is so far off the mark as to be ludicrous. And if there is such a thing as an afterlife, I’d love to be there when he and Dizzy get together again and I could hear one of their uproarious conversations.
Go gently, Moody.

Dear Mr. Moody,
Your music is clear demonstration of the miraculous in this world of ours. I pray you are as triumphant in this battle as you have been in the many others life surely placed in your path. And when this chapter does come to a close ( as it will for us all ) I pray there is a heaven or its equivalent where you are as rewarded as all of us that love your music have been, and will be for eternity.
Sincerely,
Ken Hatfield

Terrible news about Moody. But rather typical of him to defy conventional protocol, rejecting traditional therapies to treat the illness. I’m sure Linda will see that he’s kept as comfortable as possible.
Here’s my cherished Moody memory:
c. 1970’s: There was a great, swinging club in Raleigh, NC called The Frog & Nightgown, affectionately called The Frog. Operated by a British bio-chemist/jazz drummer, he thrilled starving area jazz fans when he opened the club and began booking True Star Attractions, i.e., the big bands of Count Basie, Stan Kenton, and Buddy Rich, along with The MJQ, George Shearing, Maxine Sullivan, Stan Getz, Phil Woods, Teddy Wilson, Marian McPartland … well, you get the idea.
Moody’s stand began with a big, gushy, laughing bear hug greeting because I hadn’t seen him in a long time, and the next day, he arrived at my house, driving a large, red Cadillac convertible with the top down. “C’mon Carol! Let’s go for a drive.” This not terribly long after the 1965 March in Selma.
I gazed somewhat warily around the street as I entered the passenger side of the car, and sort of hastily slunk down. Moody laughed at me until I found sufficient bravery to sit up straight and just enjoy the ride.
Jump from that period to 2003. He was just entering the dining room of the club in Boston where he was headlining, spotted me and rushed over. “Carol! Wanna go for a drive?”

Dizzy’s choice of tenor players who have accompanied him, and supported
his bands with their sonorous voices was always excellent:
Don Byas
Dexter Gordon
Lucky Thompson
G.W. “Big Nick” Nicholas
John Coltrane
Sonny Rollins
Hank Mobley
Ernie Wilkins
Stan Getz
Sonny Stitt
Brandford Marsalis …
James Moody’s name is mentioned as a band member at the Dizzy Gillespie entry of jazzdisco.org (which is not quite complete!).
This says that he “served” longer in Dizzy’s various bands than the other prominent tenorists I’ve listed above. The latest date where he is listed there in one of Dizzy’s working groups is 1989.
It’s so sad, and it is brutal that Mr. Moody got hit by the very same, and merciless kind of cancer as his former boss, the late Dizzy Gillespie.
Let’s all hope, and pray for a painless, and peaceful last chapter in
James Moody’s swinging book of life.

Mr. Moody probably ranks as one of my favourite sax players. Loved his music. I’m pretty sure it has touched me and will continue to do so to the generations after us who are fortunate enough to be introduced to his music.
From Singapore, thank u truly for the music. R.I.P. Mr. Moody.

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]

Rifftides

A winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association. Rifftides is founded on Doug's conviction that musicians and listeners who embrace and understand jazz have interests that run deep, wide and beyond jazz. Music is its principal concern, but the blog reaches past... Read More...

Subscribe to RiffTides by Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Doug’s Picks

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, After The Fall (ECM) In 1998 Keith Jarrett was emerging from a siege of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that had sidelined him for two years. As he felt better, he was uncertain how completely his piano skill and endurance had returned. He decided to test himself. He gathered his longtime […]

Gerhard Kubik, Jazz Transatlantic, Vol. I and Vol. II (University Press of Mississippi) The first volume of Kubik’s work is subtitled, “The African Undercurrent in Twentieth–Century Jazz Culture;” the second, “Jazz Derivatives and Developments in Twentieth-Century Africa.” The descriptions indicate the depth and scope of the Austrian ethnomusicologist’s research, which has taken him to Africa […]

Roberto Magris Sextet Live in Miami @ the WDNA Jazz Gallery (J Mood) Widely experienced and recorded in Europe, pianist Magris demonstrates in this club date that he knows how to reach an American audience steeped in Latin and Caribbean music. The front line has trumpeter Brian Lynch at his fieriest, and the imaginative young […]

Andy Sheppard, Romaria (ECM) The title tune, written and first recorded by the Brazilian Renato Teixeira, was made still more famous by the singer Elis Regina’s 1977 recording. It has been a beloved standard song in Brazil for four decades. British saxophonist Sheppard and his quartet hew to the spirits if not the letters of […]

Dawn Clement, Tandem (Origin) Dawn Clement’s recording history includes piano collaborations with saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and trombonist Julian Priester, among other prominent colleagues. The Seattle Times has called her, “The leading Seattle keyboardist of her generation.” Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen calls her “…an eternal gift to the music.” Clement’s discography as a leader is growing, […]

Jeff Sultanof, Experiencing Big Band Jazz: A Listener’s Companion (Rowman & Littlefield) The scope of jazz played by large ensembles is vast, but the clear-thinking scholar-musician Jeff Sultanof compresses its century-long history into a 200-page book. He accomplishes that feat by leading readers through big band music and its makers almost as if he had […]